Order of the Secret Monitor

From the very moment of our initiation as a craft mason we are made aware that Brotherly Love is to be the feature that should permeate every word, deed and thought within, and without, our assemblies, and should be the very touchstone of our practice, the blazon of our intentions and the very monitor of our utterance.

The Order was regularly Constituted in London in 1887; it is non-denominational and open to every member of a Regular Craft Constitution. Our rituals and ceremonies generate a deeper understanding of the Craft principle of brotherly love, and demand a higher level of commitment to their precepts by every Brother of David and Jonathan.

Every mason is required to express a belief in his respective God, and all Orders of Freemasonry have a special name for the Supreme Being. In the Craft it is ‘The Great Architect of the Universe’, in the Knights Templar we refer to ‘Our Heavenly Captain.’ As Royal Ark Mariners we have the Supreme Commander of the Universe, in the Order of the Secret Monitor the Supreme Being is called ‘The Almighty Friend of all Friends’, the significance of which can only be fully appreciated by members of the Order.

Craft masons meet in Lodges, but an assembly of Secret Monitors is held in a Conclave. The Presiding Officer has the title Worthy Supreme Ruler and is seated on the Throne of King David in the East. He wears the jewel of the Order suspended from a yellow and violet collaret, and a sash of the same colours bearing his rank with the name and number of the Conclave beneath, all embroidered in Silver wire.

The above is a very abbreviated form of the history of the order which has been taken from the website of the Order of the Secret Monitor in the UK. For a complete description of their history, please click here.